Cheap Prepaid Wireless?

[persistentone]

I have a "backup phone" that I use only for emergencies or when a guest is visiting and needs a phone for a week. What prepaid wireless vendor has the cheapest minimum monthly charge, or maybe only charges you to fill up your account and has no monthly charge? I used to have a plan with AT&T where I could buy time in $10 increments and had no monthly charge. I would also like to get a domestic phone call rate of under 10 cents, and when I am called on the phone from overseas I do not want to pay an International rate for the incoming call. What are my best options?

 

[puppykickr]

AT&T has pre-pay plans for 10¢ a minute.

Service can be bought (must be maintained) at 30, 90, 180, and 365 day intervals.

I get 90 days of service, which includes 200 minutes and costs $25 before tax.

Texts and data are expensive ad-ons that I dont want to pay for on an emergency phone.

For texting I use Dingtone, a free texting and calling app that provides a free VOIP number.
(Requires a data or wi-fi connection.)

 

[persistentone]

AT&T has pre-pay plans for 10¢ a minute.

Service can be bought (must be maintained) at 30, 90, 180, and 365 day intervals.

I get 90 days of service, which includes 200 minutes and costs $25 before tax.

Texts and data are expensive ad-ons that I dont want to pay for on an emergency phone.

For texting I use Dingtone, a free texting and calling app that provides a free VOIP number.
(Requires a data or wi-fi connection.)

How do I reach the sales group for this service? This is exactly what I had before, but I cannot find anyone at AT&T who can give me a number for their sales.

 

[puppykickr]

https://www.paygonline.com/websc/home.html

 

[puppykickr]

https://www.att.com/acctmgmt/registration/selectServices

 

[persistentone]

https://www.att.com/acctmgmt/registration/selectServices

I went to the AT&T store and they are claiming that AT&T no longer sells this prepaid wireless to new customers. Old customers are grandfathered in. So don't quit, because you won't be let back in!

 

[puppykickr]

Not planning to quit, as I have had the service since 2001.

I did not know that it was a discontinued service, but am well aware of how the grandfathering system works.

When you sign up for any cellular service, you sign a contract.
This contract usually binds you to certain terms and policies, but in cases like this (and others) it binds the company to continue to provide otherwise discontinued services.

Originally, in 2001, I signed a 6 month contract for $25 a month. This was with a local carrier that used AT&T towers (Centennial).
After 6 months were up, they pestered me to sign up for a new plan, but instead, because I had read the fine print, I just kept making the monthly payment.

Even though that plan was no longer available, they had to provide it to me unless I breached the original contract somehow- which I didn't, lol.

Years later, AT&T bought Centennial, and part of the deal was that AT&T had to honor all past contracts that Centennial still had active.

I maintained that sevice until AT&T came out with the 10¢ a minute plan, which cut my bill (but also my monthly minutes) by 66%.

I kept my number, but switched to the new plan (GoPhone), somewhere around 2008-9.

Anyway, from what I see, the new pre-pay isn't that bad, but it is more expensive.
https://www.att.com/prepaid/

You and I are using the service for auxillary, and that is a small market that is probably not profitable.

Something maybe worth looking into is an emergency phone.

Basically a no frills, low minutes, no data set-up so that you can have an emergency phone in your glove box while traveling kind of thing.

I know that AT&T used to have that, for about $100 a year plus the device.

If not, then there is most likely something similar that is marketed for the elderly or otherwise in need of such emergency style service.

Let me look around and see.

 

[puppykickr]

Is there anyone in your household that could qualify for a Lifeline ('Obama') phone?

 

[puppykickr]

https://www.seniorliving.org/cell-phone/best/

 

[puppykickr]

http://lifelinephone.org/

 

[persistentone]

Is there anyone in your household that could qualify for a Lifeline ('Obama') phone?

That's not really a sustainable thing. Even if I qualified, the government makes you spend $100 in your time to get $20 of their "lifelines"

 

[puppykickr]

That's not really a sustainable thing. Even if I qualified, the government makes you spend $100 in your time to get $20 of their "lifelines"

That is not true at all.
The devices and service are 100% free if your household makes 130% or less of the poverty level.

 

[dazedinmi60]

That is not true at all.
The devices and service are 100% free if your household makes 130% or less of the poverty level.

Good point.